]]>https://nhaparty.org/how-to-vote-tactically-in-marginal-seats-to-minimise-the-risk-of-a-conservative-victory-in-the-2019-general-election/feed/02019 Campaign Statementhttps://nhaparty.org/2019-campaign-statement/
https://nhaparty.org/2019-campaign-statement/#commentsSun, 17 Nov 2019 16:54:32 +0000https://nhaparty.org/?p=20048This election is a crucial one for the NHS. The NHA Party believes that the Conservative government is a clear and present danger to our health service, due both to their own policies and the problems that a hard Brexit will cause. We must do what we can to prevent a Conservative government gaining a majority.

The result for each seat is difficult to predict under our first-past-the-post system, so tactical voting and cross-party alliances will be key in ensuring victory for progressive parties. The Liberal Democrats, for example, have stood down on the Isle of Wight in favour of the local Green Party candidate, and the Greens in South West Surrey have stood down in favour of the Liberal Democrats. This embodies the cooperative spirit that the country needs.

Therefore, in order to avoid splitting the progressive vote, we have decided not to stand candidates in this election, and instead encourage our NHA supporters and voters to defend the health of the NHS and of the UK by voting and campaigning for the local candidate most likely to prevent a Conservative victory.

We will, of course, continue to campaign for the nation’s health, and will stand candidates in future elections.

Veronika Wagner
Alastair Fischer

Co-Leaders of the NHA, on behalf of the NHA Executive

]]>https://nhaparty.org/2019-campaign-statement/feed/0The Prime Minister Should Resign: We Need a General Election Nowhttps://nhaparty.org/the-prime-minister-should-resign-we-need-a-general-election-now/
https://nhaparty.org/the-prime-minister-should-resign-we-need-a-general-election-now/#commentsWed, 25 Sep 2019 09:49:21 +0000https://nhaparty.org/?p=19967Boris Johnson is a liar and unfit to hold the office of Prime Minister. Of course, this is hardly news, the public have long known that Johnson is incapable of respecting precedent, the duties of office and now as this Supreme Court judgement makes clear, our very constitution.

The Labour Party is right to refuse a general election until a no-deal Brexit has been taken off the table; Boris Johnson's word simply cannot be relied upon to ensure that this country does not go hurtling off an economic and regulatory cliff edge on the 31st of October.

But once, and if, Johnson and his cronies ask for - and are granted - an extension to Article 50, we must prepare for a general election.

Only a general election can break this impasse, and it will be one that the Conservative Party and Brexit Party will attempt to make wholly about Brexit - yet as important as Brexit is, there are also other and more pressing concerns for swathes of people across the country.

We can no longer afford to allow Brexit to command all of our attention. The question of whether we do or don't leave needs to be settled once and for all. And that can be done if Progressive Parties work together; by working together in a Progressive Alliance we can ensure that the Tories and the extremists in the Brexit Party cannot form a kamikaze right-wing government that would take this country out of the EU without a deal. A government which would seek to further erode our already crumbling public services and workers' rights in the process.

The quicker this morally corrupt Prime Minister adheres to the rule of law and asks the EU for an extension to Article 50, as he is legally obliged to, the quicker this country can come back together in order to settle the Brexit question once and for all.

If Johnson had any shred of respect for the institutions of our democracy, his request for an extension would swiftly be followed by his resignation.

-Ends-

]]>https://nhaparty.org/the-prime-minister-should-resign-we-need-a-general-election-now/feed/0Reject Brexit, Defend Democracy at the Tory Party Conferencehttps://nhaparty.org/reject-brexit-defend-democracy-at-the-tory-party-conference/
https://nhaparty.org/reject-brexit-defend-democracy-at-the-tory-party-conference/#commentsMon, 23 Sep 2019 14:57:50 +0000https://nhaparty.org/?p=19963The Conservative Party conference begins on Sunday 29th September in Manchester. We will be there to greet them.

March for Change has teamed up with Manchester for Europe to show the Conservative Party and Boris Johnson that Manchester Rejects Brexit, and to demand they do not trash our democracy.

When?

2 pm, Sunday 29 September

Where?

We are assembling at Whitworth Park, on Oxford Road

What?

We will march past the Tory Party Conference to our rally at the Castlefield Bowl.

A temporary resident recently attended our practice after coughing up blood. The likely cause was pneumonia, but tuberculosis and malignancy were on the list of differential diagnoses. My colleague duly sent the patient for chest radiography, but the request was refused as the patient—a visitor to this country—did not have an NHS number. We were told that radiography would be possible if the patient attended the emergency department.

This is surely dangerous. From a public health perspective, highly infectious diseases—in this case possible open tuberculosis—must be diagnosed and treated as swiftly as possible. Primary care is available to everyone in the UK, so I don’t understand why chest radiography requested by a GP is not counted as part of that primary care.

Most doctors and most patients don’t know the rules: you do not need identity documents or proof of address or immigration status to register with a GP and access care. We need to educate all practices and their reception teams about this; there are some excellent resources online including the Safer Surgeries Initiative.1

Under current law in England, hospital care must be paid for if you are not “ordinarily resident” in the UK, but there are exemptions: care given in emergency departments is free. Investigation and treatment of many infectious diseases are not chargeable. Some vulnerable groups are also exempt from charging.2 So even if the immigration status of our patient was uncertain, they should still have been offered an x ray examination.

Although the concept of charging overseas visitors for NHS care has a long history, the mechanisms to enforce these charges have been strengthened as part of the government’s hostile environment policy, designed to make life for undocumented migrants living in the UK untenable. Some hospitals have gone as far as putting up posters advising patients that they may not be eligible for free care and introducing identity checks for people who could not convince staff of their UK residency.3 This is a recipe for racism—as a white woman with received pronunciation, I doubt I would be questioned, but what if I had darker skin or a different accent?

Some well publicised disasters have resulted from these rules, such as the man charged £54 000 (€60 000; $65 000) for cancer care despite being resident in the UK for 44 years.4 There are many more instances of patients being denied care because they cannot pay or failing to access it through fear of being charged.45

The BMA called on the government to publish the findings of its own review into the effects of migrant charging, which it launched back in 2017, but this request has been denied.6 We can only assume that this is because the results confirm what clinicians at the front line already know—that mistakes, injustice, and avoidable suffering have been caused not for financial benefit, but merely to help the government look tough on immigration. As doctors, we must continue to speak out against this policy, which harms us all: vulnerable people are denied care, public health is compromised, and the founding ethos of the NHS is undermined.

]]>https://nhaparty.org/a-hostile-environment-in-the-nhs/feed/0The NHAP Stands in Solidarity With Striking Workers at St. Mary’s Hospital Londonhttps://nhaparty.org/the-nhap-stands-in-solidarity-with-striking-workers-at-st-marys-hospital-london/
https://nhaparty.org/the-nhap-stands-in-solidarity-with-striking-workers-at-st-marys-hospital-london/#commentsMon, 16 Sep 2019 17:14:10 +0000https://nhaparty.org/?p=19942The National Health Action Party (NHAP) wishes to express its solidarity with the outsourced cleaners and porters of St. Mary’s Hospital London who will decide tomorrow on whether to take strike action against their employer Sodexo.

Sodexo currently holds a facilities contract with Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. In its 2018 Annual Report the French based multinational boasted of having a revenue stream of 20.4 bn euros and reported a net profit of just under 1bn euros.

Between 2005 – 2018 its former CEO, Michel Landel, enjoyed annual bonuses of up to 200% of his €933,400 salary. While between the years of 2014 – 2018 alone his gross income stood at €10,304,622. During that same time and up to the present day, Sodexo have also refused to pay their workers at St. Mary’s anything but poverty wages.

NHS pay scales are currently set by the NHS’ Agenda for Change (AfC) framework, this framework also provides those scales with London weighting. However, there has recently been a growing – and increasingly worrying – trend for NHS Trusts to outsource swathes of facilities roles in order to save money. And in the process making the NHS complicit in propping up an outsourcing model that disproportionately subjects migrant workers to extreme levels of exploitation. Currently porters and cleaners who work directly for London NHS Trusts receive an hourly wage of £11.31 - £12.92 while Sodexo’s employees who do the same job receive just £6.16 - £8.21. They also do not receive pay for work done overtime.

Sodexo’s workers will also be striking for vaccinations, vaccinations which Sodexo is legally obliged to provide them with. The workers are also demanding that Sodexo provide its staff with more than one uniform per employee; as the current policy is forcing staff to work in unclean uniforms and thereby increasing the risk of infection spreading.

]]>https://nhaparty.org/the-nhap-stands-in-solidarity-with-striking-workers-at-st-marys-hospital-london/feed/0Austerity isn’t over, but its time the Tories werehttps://nhaparty.org/austerity-isnt-over-time-but-its-time-the-tories-were/
https://nhaparty.org/austerity-isnt-over-time-but-its-time-the-tories-were/#commentsMon, 09 Sep 2019 11:54:57 +0000https://nhaparty.org/?p=19926In the midst of Brexit chaos and talk of a general election being immanent, it is vital that we do not lose sight of what Boris Johnson’s government of chaos is doing in other areas of policy. This is especially important when it comes to the National Health Service. Clearly, Johnson and Dominic Cummings have recognised that the public’s willingness to accept further austerity is at the same level of breaking point as our public services. It is recognition of this fact and the need to put distance between himself and the failed premiership of Theresa May, that has underpinned the recent changes in government spending.

But for all of the Prime Minister and Chancellor’s boasts of ending austerity, the real consequences for our NHS after a decade of austerity were laid bare on the same day that Johnson talked up his commitment to funding the health service whilst justifying his decision to suspend parliament. Those consequences came in the form of a letter from the North West London collaboration of clinical commissioning groups (NWLCCCG) which was sent to MPs and other key individuals.

First reported on by the Guardian, what the letter reveals is a plan for cuts and the mass rationing of NHS treatments. Specifically, the letter detailed a plan to save £60 million pounds within the next few months by:

Significantly reducing referrals to consultants

Axing some outpatient appointments and replacing them with a phone conversation

“Repatriation” of some acute treatment from various specialist hospitals to local ones

And ending the ability of some patients to receive treatment from more than one specialist consultant

The cuts and rationing proposed within this letter is not only worrying for the residents of North West London, an area with a population of 2 million, but also for the entirety of England more generally; as North West London has traditionally been a testing ground for health policy which is then rolled out nationwide.

Reacting to the news, Dr Alastair Fischer, newly elected Co-Leader of the National Health Action Party, responded by saying, "This plan to save money by launching an outright attack on patient treatment and the capacity for GPs to prescribe according to need and their expert opinion is a symptom of just how grave the crisis in our National Health Service has become after nearly a decade of relentless Tory austerity. We desperately need, now more than ever, to remove the Conservatives from power and to properly fund both our NHS and the other invaluable public service upon which all ordinary people rely”.

Ends

]]>https://nhaparty.org/austerity-isnt-over-time-but-its-time-the-tories-were/feed/0Dr Alastair Fischer Appointed as New Co-Leader of the NHAhttps://nhaparty.org/dr-alastair-fischer-elected-as-new-co-leader-of-the-nha/
https://nhaparty.org/dr-alastair-fischer-elected-as-new-co-leader-of-the-nha/#commentsFri, 06 Sep 2019 09:13:52 +0000https://nhaparty.org/?p=19911Following the resignation of Dr Alex Ashman as Co-Leader of the National Health Action Party, the NHAP has a new co-leader. Dr Alastair Fischer, the party's Nominating Officer, is taking on the duties until a longer-term arrangement can be put in place.

Dr Fischer, a health economist, says "The NHS remains under great threat from the nine-year reduction in funding per head carried out under the name of austerity by the current government.

In addition, Brexit or the threat of Brexit will cause further acute shortages of staff in both the NHS and in Social Care. The NHS is also continuing to remain open to private health providers, many of whose profits will go to offshore tax havens instead of being reinvested in the UK healthcare system.

I give thanks to the outgoing Co-Leader, Dr Alex Ashman, a Junior Doctor who is studying for exams to become a Consultant, and wish Dr Ashman the best of luck in them".

Ends

]]>https://nhaparty.org/dr-alastair-fischer-elected-as-new-co-leader-of-the-nha/feed/0Our Political System is Broken – It Is Time to Fix Ithttps://nhaparty.org/our-political-system-is-broken-it-is-time-to-fix-it/
https://nhaparty.org/our-political-system-is-broken-it-is-time-to-fix-it/#commentsThu, 29 Aug 2019 08:46:20 +0000https://nhaparty.org/?p=19907Boris Johnson’s prorogation of parliament is an affront to our democracy, but it is not a coup. What he has done is perfectly legal and the fact that it is so, demonstrates now more than ever, just how fundamentally broken our political system really is. Our unwritten constitution formed by a patchwork of precedents, acts of parliament and legal judgments – a constitution which in comparison with those other European countries is nothing less than freakishly unorthodox - is in free fall.

The National Health Action Party believes that now more than ever progressives must put aside party differences and work together in order to avoid the disaster of a no-deal Brexit, and to give people a final say on whether leaving the European Union is really what they want. It is also time that those who wished to stop Brexit faced up to some facts.

The first of these is that the chance of success for a legislative route out of this mess is extremely slim. In fact, it is close to being non-existent. That means that a vote of no confidence is the best weapon MPs have to stop a no-deal Brexit. But that will also mean, and the NHAP have said this on more than one occasion, that it is time for the Liberal Democrats to stop their demand for Jeremy Corbyn to step aside so that a back-bench MP could become Prime Minister of an interim government. No one, and especially not the public, is fooled by this demand which is none other than brazen political point scoring at a time of crisis: it is putting party before country.

And the same applies to Change UK MPs. They are polling at 0% and know full well that they have no chance of being re-elected at the next election. If they refuse to back a vote of no confidence in the government, it will be for no other reason than to save their own jobs whilst they watch others lose theirs as a result of Boris Johnson’s kamikaze Brexit. The same applies to the so-called “Tory rebels”, rebels who have consistently failed to rebel. Those who have paid lip service to stopping a no-deal Brexit, but who refused to act when the time came, will be judged harshly by history.

The National Health Action Party stands ready to fight any general election, in which we will campaign to remain in the European Union and to save our NHS from being handed over to US corporations in a post-Brexit trade deal. We will stand to reform our broken political system and to put an end to austerity.

The striking workers, 300 in total, work as caterers, porters, cleaners, security guards and receptionists and are outsourced to the Trusts by private contractor Medirest, a subsidiary of Compass Group - a private contractor that supplies numerous Trusts with outsourced workers.

The striking workers, like many outsourced workers working within the NHS, are demanding parity with NHS staff in terms of both pay and working conditions. NHS pay scales and working conditions are determined by the NHS' national Agenda for Change Framework.

This framework sees NHS workers enjoy greater pay, sick pay, annual leave and other rights than their outsourced colleagues, colleagues who nonetheless are vital to the smooth running of hospitals and who undertake essential functions such as cleaning.

Unison, the union representing the workers, has calculated that their members currently receive £1,600 less per year than their NHS counterparts.

The striking workers also receive no shift bonuses for working weekends or bank holidays. On top of this they only receive statutory sick pay. At the time of writing Medirest has refused to concede to the workers demands.

The National Health Action Party firmly believes that the public are against the NHS being complicit in the formation of two-tier workforces which pay poverty wages to those who significantly contribute to the smooth running of the health service.

The business model of outsourcing is explicitly predicated upon the exploitation of workers who fail to enjoy the same rights and working conditions as their colleagues who work in-house. The NHS should not be complicit in this exploitation.

The rise in outsourcing within the health service, coupled with the rise in NHS Trusts setting up wholly owned subsidiary companies in order to transfer staff from the NHS into private companies in which their wages and working conditions can be driven down is also an unacceptable yet increasingly prevalent phenomenon.